| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: as episodes to this great epic of self-help. The epic is composed of
individual heroisms; it stands to them as the victorious war which
subdued an empire stands to the personal act of bravery which spiked
a single cannon and was adequately rewarded with a medal. For in
emigration the young men enter direct and by the shipload on their
heritage of work; empty continents swarm, as at the bo's'un's
whistle, with industrious hands, and whole new empires are
domesticated to the service of man.
This is the closet picture, and is found, on trial, to consist mostly
of embellishments. The more I saw of my fellow-passengers, the less
I was tempted to the lyric note. Comparatively few of the men were
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: will be easy for you to undeceive her. You see, I
am playing a most pitiful and ugly role in your
eyes, and I even admit it -- that is the utmost I
can do for your sake. However bad an opinion
you may entertain of me, I submit to it. . . You
see that I am base in your sight, am I not? . . .
Is it not true that, even if you have loved me, you
would despise me from this moment?" . . .
She turned round to me. She was pale as
marble, but her eyes were sparkling wondrously.
"I hate you" . . . she said.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: madmen are wont to inflict? Consider, my dear friend: may it not be quite
otherwise?
ALCIBIADES: Why, Socrates, how is that possible? I must have been
mistaken.
SOCRATES: So it seems to me. But perhaps we may consider the matter
thus:--
ALCIBIADES: How?
SOCRATES: I will tell you. We think that some are sick; do we not?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And must every sick person either have the gout, or be in a
fever, or suffer from ophthalmia? Or do you believe that a man may labour
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